Take away from the morning

Genre Study 

Touchstone text is the text the teacher chooses to share with students to teach the genre.  Mentor text is the text the students choose to guide their writing.   As srudents discuss text we should be open to the ideas our students bring to the conversation.  Take time to imagine the writing notebook when discussing a piece of text.

Poetry 

An exploration of keeping our notebook alive during the immersion stage of a poetry genre study.  Options for writing - the kinds of writing you could in make in your WNB when reading poetry.

* How does the poem make you feel?  Think about

*. Write entries in lines and stanzas to practice the feel of poetry

*. Reread entries and underline cool or interesting phrases or words you could use in poems

*. Change a previous entry into a poem if it's written in non-poem form

*. Collect words or phrases that you find interesting or powerful you have heard or read before

*. Create an entry that you think a poet would make that is not on this list

This is what I need to get back into doing.  Wonder if Collins would like to write together.

Present poems to girls in packets, individual poems, pages - rather than books.

* find quotations to create something from

* find a line I struggled with when reading the poem to write off of

* play with form structures - use poem as a structure outline

* mirror the structure or topic of poem

* draw

As a teacher copy interesting student notebook pages to share with class.

Helen Vendler's Poems Poets and Poetry - a book to check out.

Essay

Begin immersion reading like a reader.  Hang out with the genre.  Focus on what we like about it.  The goal being to catch and hook them.  

Then move on to what makes a good essay.  

Anchor or touchstone text - as immerse our students in genre literature shared should be the best.

The second level of immersion is the time to allow students to look at details of piece of writing.  Beautiful beginnings or endings.  

Talk about what they notice in the writing.  Figure out how the writer went about the writing.  After identifying. A few qualities or features invite students to try out one of these writing moves in their WNB.  Provides options for students who may be reluctant to revise.

Questions to guide reflection

How did going through the study feel?

What was hard for you?

What do you think about your finished piece?

First day of blogging

Fifth period - my guinea pigs and it's working.  All girls got on.  Girls are posting and commenting.  I feel the introduction time in class is one of those steps to support girls who have less screen time than the girls who have unlimited screen time.  Allowing girls to write using their literary letters as support is helping some.  There is energy in the lab as all girls are engaged in activity.

Collaboration

So, Jeanne, wanted us to include how 21st century skills are used all the time in our classrooms;  how we weave them seamlessly into our daily practice.  Well, recently I've been inspired to blog about my practice - reflective practice at work.  Interesting enough the two days I have chosen to blog about both include the successful use of student collaboration in various ways.
Today for our 'so what?' lesson, I first divided the class into three groups to analyze the three short stories we have been using as models.  Each group reread the story and looked for the 'so what?' in the story.  The small groups allowed me to check in with each group, conduct small group instruction and teach as needed.  Then each group presented their 'so what?'
From their I placed the girls into groups of three to share their own stories and identify the 'so what?' in each story.  Since they had already identified this in a published story, I felt confident that they would be able to do this in a small group.  I ended the period asking the girls to jot down the 'so what?' as a statement in their notebook and hopefully use the statement as they revised their stories.

Students sharing writing

I love matching the girls with someone they would not normally share their writing.  It's 8th period on a Friday 30 minutes til the bell rings.  The girls are sharing their writing - 2 different povs and are focused.  They want to look like they know what they are doing with their non-typical  partner.

Last couple of days - September 30, 2010

In the last two days we worked on our memoirs adding snapshots and thoughtshots.  The girls seemed to grasp the strategy.  I don't know how successful they were practicing the strategy.  In several classes I was able to have students share their writing.  Keyanna shared a memoir about her grandfather's death.  The writing time in all classes felt a bit chaotic.  I need to work on how to manage the class when I am conferencing.  

Then we discussed "Invictus" and identified metaphors.  This time I had the girls write about the meaning and the meaning of the metaphors.  

On A day we did not get to the reflection in all classes.  Second period covered it, but not first. Can't remember if we got to reflection with third period.

Third period had two good memoirs shared - Araceli and Alex.

Today only fifth period got to reflection.  Their poetry discussion was the least inspiring.  I don't think the girls know what a metaphor is.  I think I need to be more explicit - model!!

Sixth period had a good conversation about the poem.  A few girls seemed uncertain of metaphors.  Maybe try peer teaching here.

The seventh period discussion was focused on the idea of metaphor.  Next week I will introduce metaphor as a means of analyzing Kenny's character.

Writing and reading - September 28, 2010

Today and yesterday the girls have been working on their memoirs and responding to Comfort.  At the start of WW I shared a poorly written memoir that I copied from Atwell's In the Middle.  We talked about problems and I asked the girls to share how they would revised the draft.  I'd typed the draft in google docs to make it easy to access.  Technology held the first two periods and did not work during 3rd.  So far today it has been working.  Keeping my fingers crossed for 7th.  Surprisingly the writing time during 3rd was the most focused and the girls shared amazing tidbits about their time writing.  One student told me that since her sister had been in town over the weekend she wrote about her sister.  She'll use the writing in her memoir.  Another student said she had written about one of the places in her memoir.  I was excited to hear how they were using their notebooks to collect around their topics. 

Additionally I went over the first drafts of their memoirs I received last week.  Trying to only focus on one aspect of their writing, I conferenced with each girl.  The overwhelming area of focus was how they could show me that the story was important to them - sharing their thoughts and feelings!

Yesterday and today were the first days to respond to Comfort.  Feeling that the needs of the girls were varied, I created 4 response activities.  The first was a basic response: summary, response with a connection to the text - what made them think this.  The need was apparent after grading so many summer reading projects.  The next was choosing a passage to respond to.  I found this need tied to recent reading responses.  There was a character analysis activity - something I found in Gallagher's Deeper Reading.  The fourth group analyzed the poem Invictus and shared how the poem tied to the text.  While the prep work was significant and the set-up a little chaotic, I think it was a good idea.  Divide and conquer.  Meet the needs of our girls.

Last two days - September 21, 2010

Yesterday I saw my B day students.  We worked with a prompt for our memoirs.  The writing went well both as they responding and when they wrote long.  Fifth period worked with the most focus.  Sixth and seventh were a bit chatty.  All of the classes hunkered down when it was time to spend time with one focus.

We also talked about how writing at home was going.  The girls identified two problem areas.  One a place to work which was conducive to writing.  Lots of younger siblings.  One student preferred writing among others.  The other problem was what to write about.  I will continue to share ideas for generating things to write about.

Today I met with my B day students.  During first period I asked them to write about our speaker this morning and what they hoped to remember.  Then we moved on to reading our recent entries with the hope of finding a topic that interested them.  We wrote a tiny bit towards that.  Then we discussed Naomi Shihab Nye's poem Kindness as a focus poem for Comfort.  First period our discussion was great.  The girls felt that they had a better understanding of what metaphor was after discussing the poem and identifying metaphors.  They also saw how metaphors contributed to the meaning in a poem.

During second period we looked at our notebooks and identified an idea for our memoirs.  The girls seemed focused and successful.  They had some writing time.  Our discussion of the poem was not as rich.  The discussion did not seem to clarify  metaphor in the way it did for first period.

Finally during third period we also looked at our notebooks for ideas for our memoirs.  The class had several questions about what exactly they should do.  Could have been my instruction.  Once I clarified they went back into and most of the girls identified a direction.  Writing time was extremely focused.  Then we discussed the poem.  Their discussion fell somewhere in the middle.  Several of the girls had a greater understanding of metaphor others remained quiet.  

Since I will use metaphor as a tool for deepening their reading experience, their understanding will be evaluated again.  Need to stress when looking at Invictus, too.